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Here is my new linocut of Bank Tube Station – just a snap taken on my phone at the studio – but you get the idea. I wanted to call it Little and Large – but I decided to be sensible and so I settled on Weekend Away….

Here is another linocut I thought I was happy with. That is, until I got to thinking about it. Below is the original version of One Way Ticket, of which I’d editioned ten and then stored in my plan chest.

Then I made the mistake of opening said plan chest and accidentally looking at them. I found I didn’t like that female figure at all and also, well, where are all the people? Tooting Broadway is a very busy tube station after all……

So with the help of my trusty repair kit, I added three more figures – a couple walking by, hand in hand, and a man striding into the other station entrance. I thought I’d just change the woman in the foreground too – make her hair longer and tone down her top – and add some floor tiles inside. Okay, that’s better….

Hmm – I’m sorry but it’s all so dark. I know, I’ll lighten the sky – make it daytime instead of evening. Oh, and while I’m at it, I’ll change her top again…

I still don’t like her top though – let’s try a different pattern – and, well, why not make the sky yellow and the interior of the tube station blue?No, sorry, I don’t like any of that and what’s more, I’m not sure if it’s not all too crowded now. Perhaps I should take out one of the figures?

Okay, that will have to do – surplus male removed, blue sky and yellow interior re-instated, and I’ve gone with the original top. And if you think this was a lot of work, I can assure you this is an edited version….

Here is the final block, inked up in pale blue and a thin yellow glaze. In the end, I decided to cut it up into sections so that each area could be inked up separately – then I could just push it back together again for printing.I probably should have cut another block entirely for the yellow but I felt it was important to get the print completed this year.

Anyway, here is the final version with the barely visible alterations.Still, I’m happy with it now- and thanks to all of you who took the trouble to comment on my progress. It’s not easy to view your work with any detachment, especially when you’d been under the impression that you’d finished it once before…..

After a hard day faffing around in the studio, I finally decided to print up the third block in cream exactly as I had done in the original version.This means I have cleverly avoided making a decision on introducing a new colour until I print the last block (i.e. leaving it until the last moment, as usual.)I have a few options:a) Just leave the print as it was – I can print up the final block in the original light blue and have a few extra copies of the original print (very tempting, this one).b) Carry on with the master plan and insert some yellow into the final pale blue block, with the added bonus of many more hours of fine-tuning, the results of which most people won’t be able to see with the naked eye.c) Forget printing the last block with the pale blue and replace it entirely with the yellow glaze.d) Go and work at Tesco’s.

I’ve just printed the second block, in a strong red – a mixture of scarlet and crimson.Now I have to decide whether to add the bright yellow glaze to selected areas on the third block (cream) or to selected areas on the fourth block (pale blue).If I add the yellow glaze to the third block, I will end up with some pale greens. (As once I’ve printed the pale blue of the fourth block onto that new yellow glaze of the third block, that’s what I’ll get.) I’m not sure I want any green – and I could avoid it by adding the yellow glaze onto sections of the fourth block, where it will sit alongside the blue, instead of under it.This of course means less variations in terms of the whole colour scheme. Hmm……

This is the final proof of my new linocut – it’s called West End Girl – and as usual I’m wondering if it’s okay or whether it needs some more work. Perhaps it lacks a little sparkle?I really do hope it’s not back to the drawing board….

The Mini Picture Show is now on at Bankside Gallery from 26th November 2010 until 18th January 2011. Open 11-6 every day.All the pictures are immediately available to take away (once purchased, of course!)

I know I should have finished this how-to by now but I’ve had a crisis of confidence…..It always happens – I reach a point where I feel I can go no further with a print and so the next step is to edition it. This I do, generally feeling quite pleased with myself…..Then, with the print finally hanging up to dry, I’ll take a quick look and it’s like a fog has lifted. I suddenly see the mistakes, and worse, all the ways in which it could have been so much better.By this time, (generally the day after finishing the editioning, but sometimes after a cup of tea) it’s far too late to do anything about it and I just put the prints away in a drawer and forget about them for a while.Of course, this isn’t possible when the print has featured in a series of blog entries so for now, I’ll do an on-line version of putting it away and just leave a photo of it drying in the studio….Looking on the bright side though I do have a title – it’s called Two Tribes….

Carol Nunan over at Carol’s Original Prints has suggested on her blog that a ‘How To’ on various print techniques might be interesting.So this is the start of mine, on linocuts obviously – and this is the drawing that I will use to trace and transfer on to four lino blocks…